All About The Hook ~ @oddlynn3 #rndrobin0418 #LynnCrain #AWriterInVienna

Hi everyone!

And welcome to A Writer In Vienna. If you’ve never been here before, pull up a chair and look around. I’ve lived in Vienna, Austria four years and am trying to share that experience with others. Drop by my other blog www.lynncrain.blogspot.com for Monday’s Scoop where I talk even more about the experience. While there, don’t forget to comment and be entered into my monthly contest for a $25 GC of your choice.

Today’s topic is all about what glues you to a story, start to finish. This also includes how we as authors hook our readers. These are age old topics for writers and aren’t to be taken lightly. If you can’t interest a reader immediately in today’s publishing world, you don’t have a chance. If you don’t live up to your hook, you don’t have a chance of being picked up again by that reader.

So…what’s an author to do? Write a great first line, of course!

To me, some of the things a first line, commonly called your hook line, should do, but not necessarily all of them, are:

T  State something unusual.

T  Show someone under stress. For example, if your main character is a time traveler, how they handle what they see and experience will decide the course of the story.

T  The first must be appropriate to the story. You don’t show a nun, who is having a crisis of faith, in the middle of a barrage of gunfire.

T  It should describe the moment when the rest of the novel becomes inevitable.

T  The first line should sum up the whole story.

T  They must make the reader want to read line two.

Overall, a first line or hook, should be clever, thought-provoking, draw the reader into an unfamiliar world, bring a smile to the readers face, be poignant, setup a mystery, use words in such a wonderful way that the reader wants more, introduce a characters and so much more. Those are just a few of the things I feel a first line should do.

Just think of some of the best first lines you’ve read. Here a few of mine:

It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife. (Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen, 1813)

Harry Potter was a very unusual boy in many ways. (Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, J.K. Rowling, 1999)

He was running for his life. (Hot Ice, Nora Roberts, 1987)

And here’s a few from my own stories:

Damn, I’m going to lose another one, MacKenzie thought as she beat the steering wheel with her fist. (Midnight Run, Lynn Crain, 2010 unpublished)

He had always been in this cage in one way or another. (Night of the Blue Moon, Lynn Crain, 2007)

What the hell was I doing on this off-planet hell hole? (Private Dancer, Lynn Crain, 2007)

The first line sets the tone for of the rest of the novel, everything else of the story will follow from it. If the first line isn’t something an author can feel in their gut, it’s probably wrong.

Now once you’ve written that great first line, you need to keep the pace going so that every page is integral to the overall story arc of the characters. Again, think of all the books you couldn’t put down. The books I listed above were finished in a day or no more than a few days because every page was a turner.

As a writer, it’s hard to make every page something great. The idea is to first get the story down as if it never gets out of one’s head and on the page, it doesn’t matter. Once there, an author can tweak it, read it again, send it to betas, tweak it some more, have an editor look at it and finally get it published because it shines like a new copper penny.

Some writers think there is a secret to making great page turners. There isn’t. A writer’s greatest tool is the ability to change and adapt, to make their product better as their career moves on. What and how I write today isn’t the same as how I wrote in my late twenties. I’m better and I know it.

And as a writer, I will learn and grow until I can’t any more. Even today, I take classes. Currently, I’m in two marketing classes, a flash-fiction class and a class on how to create a language. I feel it will all make me a better writer.

Overall, I try to write stories I like to read. I love things to be thrilling and constantly changing. Some of my works-in-progress reflect that as I’m working on a series of short stories about a paranormal matchmaking service, a series of shorts about a group of women who were genetically engineered to be soldiers, and a series about a young girl thrust into the world of paranormal investigation. Each and every story is unique. Hopefully, they have a great hook, an incredible middle and a kick-ass ending.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this little look into writing great hooks and page turners. Thank you for being supportive of us during our round robins. We love when you visit us and tell us what you think.

Don’t forget to go to each of the authors in the list below. Again, thanks for joining us…see you next time.

Lynn

T Beverley Bateman at http://beverleybateman.blogspot.ca/
T Diane Bator http://dbator.blogspot.ca/q
T Ginger Simpson http://mizging.blogspot.com/
T Skye Taylor  http://www.skye-writer.com/
T Marci Baun at http://www.marcibaun.com/
T Margaret Fieland at http://www.margaretfieland.com/blog1/

T Helena Fairfax at http://helenafairfax.com/
T Anne Stenhouse at http://annestenhousenovelist.wordpress.com/
T Fiona McGier at http://www.fionamcgier.com/
T Connie Vines at http://connievines.blogspot.com/

T Rachael Kosnski http://rachaelkosinski.weebly.com/
T Victoria Chatham http://victoriachatham.webs.com/

Only in Vienna Mondays ~ @oddlynn3 #LynnCrain #OnlyInVienna

            Hi everyone!

            I have decided to start a new column here on A Writer in Vienna. Austria is an extremely interesting place and I have noticed things that I’ve not seen elsewhere in the world. Now, that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist elsewhere, it just means if I see it here and make note of it then it’s different or unusual.

            Most of the time, it will just be a picture with a caption. Or it might be a picture with a question…you never know just what I’ll be thinking that day…LOL! Yes, there are many days where I ask myself ‘huh’ or ‘what is that’ or ‘what the hell is that’ because it’s very odd and definitely something I’ve not seen in the world that I’m used to seeing.

            So, sit back and enjoy yourself through the very different and odd things found in Vienna.

            Enjoy!

            Lynn

This weeks entry is easy and fun. We’re walking to the pet store to get Pup Harry his special dry dog food when I look across the street. Huzzah! Won’t the friends back in the US be so, so jealous. They don’t have one of these there!

Let’s Start At The Very Beginning ~ @oddlynn3 #rndrobn0921

Welcome to our monthly Round Robin with the Night Writers gang. Follow the trail this month and you’ll see us all talking about new beginnings. Sometimes they’re fantastic, sometimes they’re so-so and sometimes they are downright disastrous. Follow the link at the bottom to go to the next author and see their take on new beginnings.

The Sound of Music has always been one of my favorite movies of all times and the Do-Ra-Mi songs the best ever. See when I was in 3^rd grade I was So, a needle pulling thread. I can remember the day, my favorite dress and the song I loved so much. I don’t remember much about the performance but I do remember I was happy it was all over.

So moving to Austria in May 2011 was a new beginning to an old song. True, I live in Vienna, which is a long way from Salzburg but I was in the same country where one of my favorite movies actually took place. Now I didn’t know when I would be able to see any of these things but imagine my surprise when my in-laws came to town and wanted to do a tour of the country including Salzburg. What was even more exciting for me, I got to walk the steps where the song actually was filmed, Mirabella Gardens. I really wanted to do the Sound of Music tour but they wouldn’t’ let us take pup Harry, so that’s left for another time. Here are a couple of things that we saw.

The story of Sound of Music is all about new beginnings for a family who didn’t believe in their country's decisions any more. Now that wasn’t my case. I do believe in the US and all it stands for but I also know that goodwill needs to be spread across the globe. So when my husband got the choice to move here, in many ways it was a no-brainer.  While here, I’ve interfaced with people from many nations. I live in a building with three embassies, Albania, Dominican Republic and Paraguay. Also in the same building are the OSCE  residences of Finland, Ireland and Spain. Up the street is the Turkish embassy and down the street is the huge embassy of France.

Sure, I didn’t, and still don’t, like the fact that I’m far away from my family but this time has provided many new beginnings in the form of my writing. Since my time here, I’ve been able to consolidate my social media and get totally on track with it. I’ve also started a whopping 13 books, finished 3, reworked some older ones and have been with a new critique group.

New beginnings can come in many forms and none have to be as drastic as what the von Trapps and I’ve done. One doesn’t have to move far away to get a new beginning. Every time we read a book, it has to start at the beginning. Every time we, as writers, write a book, it has to start at the beginning. And every time we start a new character that character has got to start somewhere be it a murder scene, something totally unexpected or just a normal but different day.

Beginnings abound every day. We as writers just need to embrace those new beginnings and use them to our best advantage. What about you? How do you embrace new beginnings?

Now let’s keep this round robin going. Please go to Connie Vines blog and see what she has to say about the subject of new beginnings.

Thanks and see you all next time!

Lynn

The Sunday Stroll

Life has changed a bit since we got our puppy but those changes are fantastic overall. One of the benefits that I have noticed is the fact that we’re more active on the weekends. Previous to puppydom, we’d stick pretty close to home or go shopping or do pretty much nothing. We’d read, we’d rest, we’d slounge. Since Harry, we are out and about more on the weekends.

For the past few Sundays, and probably at least until it gets really cold, we’ve started to go on Sunday walks. Make that Sunday strolls. It seems that everyone in Vienna is out doing the same thing. We even found that when there are holidays, like National Day which was mid-week, the strolling attitude still applies. People are out in droves and it’s a very interesting time to be had.

So far, our favorite stroll site is a place called Hauptallee in Wiener Prater. This place reminds me of grand European style and I can’t walk it without things about all the ladies and men moving about with parasols, long dresses and suits of the day. I can picture myself back in time and it has my creative juices flowing to say the least. The place is beautiful and seems never ending as we start on the end where we get off the train and walk to a little bit more than half way.

It is made especially more real when you hear the clip-clop of a horse’s shoe on the pavement. Turning, I find myself surprised as I see a horse-drawn carriage just feet from us. I can imagine many such hackneys, delivering the rich and famous or even the not-so-much-but-want-to-be-seen people of a bygone era. Here I can actually feel the pull of the city whereas in other places it seems no different to me than any crowded cityscape. Here I can feel the time of the Kaisers of the Hapsburg family, the wealth of a nation and the gentleness of the people.

The land was originally purchased by Emperor Maximillian II to be a hunting ground. There was the problem of poaching on royal land and Emperor Rudolf II forbade entry to the Prater. In April of 1766, Emperor Joseph II declared that the Prater was free of royal constraints and therefore for public enjoyment, allowing for the establishment of coffee-houses and cafes. Hunting didn’t cease in the park until 1920.

The previous mentioned Hauptalle is the main avenue of the park and is lined with horse chestnut trees that are just beautiful. It is closed to motorists and people can ride their bikes, take casuals strolls, jog or any number of things to propel one’s self through the pleasant scenery. It is home to the Liliputhahn, a narrow gauge railway now used for the entertainment of children. The main park has roller coasters and a variety of adult rides. Also there is a planetarium and the Prater Museum.

The most interesting thing that I saw was Republic of Kugelmugel,  a spherical micronation started by artist Edward Lipburger in a dispute over building permits with the Austrian government. It’s become a tourist attraction and sits behind a barb-wired fence. I found it utterly fascinating that it supposedly has 389 citizens.

Personally, I don’t care about the particulars of a lot of the history but it does certainly contributes to the overall vibe of the place. As long as I can stroll here on any given afternoon of my choosing, I’ll certainly be happy.

Lynn

The Foggy Morning

It’s been a while since I’ve updated this blog and I must apologize. It’s not that nothing has happened here...it has...I’ve just been working on other things. Like writing and editing, after all, it is what I’m supposed to be doing with all my free time. <Snort> If you believe that...then I have a bridge for you...LOL!

First, puppy Harry has been occupying a lot of my time. By a lot I’m talking about daily walks on the order of one to three a day. The dear husband gets morning duty because he can jog him and tire him out. This is very, very good. The pup is just like a kid or the energizer bunny, he goes and goes and keeps on going until he drops. Naps can be anywhere from one to three hours.

There are many benefits to this. One, I feel energized myself and the walks are getting easier and easier. Two, I am losing weight slow but steady on average of about one pound per week. This was happening before we got the puppy but is now on the fast track it seems as I’ve lost one to three pounds each week, depending upon the week, the walks and the food. I see this as a win-win situation for me.

Today, though, when the DH woke up I hear an ‘oh dear’ from the bedroom. I’m thinking something is wrong and get up. By the time I get to the living room he’s already in the bathroom with Harry in tow, so I’m left to figure out just what was wrong. It didn’t take long as I turned to look out the window. The world is blanketed in fog and I can’t even see across the park as is the normal thing. The only things I can see are the building immediately in front, the wall next to that and the few trees behind it.

DH comes back and we compare how this is so much like San Francisco and or the central valley of California. Now, I’ve seen gray days here and was told that it’s not really gray but a fog hanging high in the sky. Right. It looked like clouds to me and I begin to wonder just how many days like this we will be having.

Add on to the weirdness of the day, but there is no traffic. You know you’re in a religious country when All Saints Day is a national holiday. People are in slow mode as they enjoy their time off. However, the DH does not have the day off and we don’t get to enjoy this quite day together. The holiday schedule is so odd here that we’re not sure just what he’ll have off until it happens. I’ve been making note of them as some are national holidays, international holidays and religious days. We won’t be having any US holidays off, that’s for sure.

I wait a couple of hours to see if any of this is going to change. The outside is getting better and the traffic is finally flowing. Still, it’s strange to have moments of silence in a town where I haven’t noticed much silence at all. It’s even more strange to not be able to see across the park and watch the people coming to see the sights.

Until next time!

Lynn